i got internet famous... if i started again from scratch, here's what I'd do this time

people do not want information they want a feeling there is no such thing as too long there is only too boring you need a plus content with c minus delivery the rule of a hundred hundred videos every time choose one thing to do better if you've ever thought about building an audience or building a brand online this video is for you because i've done it i feel like i could rule to where i know i could be what i want to put at all in it like a days on on a less travel never the last five years i've built podcast this podcast is done over a hundred million downloads we've got a million youtube subscribers half a million on twitter i've got some experience of building audiences and i've learned what i would call a pretty non conventional playbook so this is my non obvious advice for you because you've heard all the obvious advice the obvious advice is you should post consistently and you should do x y this is not that okay so here's the advice that if i was sitting down younger me who was interested in doing this actually wanted to be a content creator wanted to have an audience these are kind of the hard lessons learned non obvious piece of advice number one who follows you is what's important not how many people follow you i heard tim ferris say this once he said would you rather have a hundred thousand people on earth at random read your book or you know the hundred ceos of the fortune one hundred that hundred is worth more than a hundred thousand and so you really wanna get intentional about who is the audience that you really really care about and if you're making sports content for athletes did you really wanna figure out who's that type of person and how do i make sure that my content would resonate with them i'm okay getting less views i'm okay to getting less likes as long as it's the right people and the right likes that my message is finding the right ears you know just to give you of like a business analogy there's a car analogy which is dangerous because i'm like the only guy on earth that doesn't care about cars but general motors will sell i don't two and a half million cars a year the company's worth fifty billion dollars ferrari sells thirteen thousand so two point six million versus thirteen thousand but ferrari is worth eighty billion it can sell two hundred times fewer customers than gm but still be more valuable because it's getting luxury customers high end customers and i think if you are like me you're creating ideally like sort of up market content you're creating content that you know is a little bit more intelligent not the sort of like mass market stuff unless that's really the game you wanna play hey real quick if you listen to this episode and you like what you're hearing don't worry you don't have to take any notes the sponsor of today's episode hubspot has put together everything in this episode as a free guide for you to download all the notes everything i'm talking about here in a nice clean little notes structure for you it's in the link in the description below alright number two most people don't know what they should talk about and i have some advice here which is very simple i got this for my trainer he said look the best products in the world are ones where the founder just pushes a little bit of themselves out in the world it's like you know going inside out just whatever's is in your belly how you push it out i call this finding your inner nerd the question you should ask yourself is not kinda like what does the audience want but what is the thing you nerd out the about the most maybe it's something that sounds a little boring or you like it to a degree that's sort of a abnormal that weird is something you wanna lean into not lean away from so it it might look odd to others but it feels right to you for example i remember going to my uncle uncles house one time and he took me to the basement i don't worry it's not that type of story he he down in the basement he's got a model train set up and every night he was spending hours tinkering with this model train that it was so elaborate and he flicked it on to show me and he showed me that the light the timing of the green light and the yellow lights were like we're like realistic so that he's showing me like his proudest work and i'm thinking wow my uncle uncles is the biggest do but for content that's actually what you want because it turns out the internet is this amazing thing where you'll find the other thousand ten thousand hundred thousand or million people who are just as nerdy about the same topics as you this is why you'll see creators who go viral about random stuff we talked on this podcast before about the woman who's doing perfume tours in new york she's just nerd her inner nerd is about scent and she knows more about scent than you know about it she cares more than you care but she will find the audience of people who care as much about perfume and sense as she does there's a guy who does work wear like men's style and he just loves writing about the the pant cuffs and the hem and the cuts and he'll write a thousand words on this stuff something i would never do but one it eliminates competition because while there's many people creating content very few people will have the same taste palette the same inner nerd as you so you end up in this if you just follow that you're just honest about it you'll end up almost with no competition which sounds crazy it's like being an incredibly crowded room yet you have five feet of space all around you and the second is that success is a guarantee because if you're if your version of success is am i famous with millions of followers yet you're gonna be unhappy for a long time probably forever but if you're really just focus on dude how do i just talk about the stuff that i love that is stuff that i find really fun then every day is a win and you will attract brick by brick the right audience for you you shift your odds of success for less than one percent to a hundred percent because you're gonna be playing a different game you know the game you'll be playing is we're playing is winning versus only if i'm successful then it's a win learn the five d's so most people just wanna be famous but i recommend having a different goal the goal is not to be well known it is to be known well what does that mean what does it mean for somebody to know you well well you wanna be able to share your stories your hopes your dreams your fears your obsessions i call these are the five d's so the first d is done what have i done what is my track record your audience should know that about you what have you done in life deliver what do you deliver for people who follow you what's the service you offer what's the value add you give them why should somebody follow you do what do you do for work what do you do for fun what do you like to do people should know about your work your hobbies those sorts of things hey let's take a quick break you know that feeling when strategy is done the brief is written everyone's aligned and you realize someone still has to sit down and actually create all the content that someone is usually you and it's due tomorrow well the breeze assistant from hubspot can help it works right inside hubspot you can draft campaign copy blog posts emails all in your brand voice all using your actual customer data so you don't create just content you create content that converts check out hubspot dot com the agent customer platform for growing businesses dreams what are you shooting for what's the dream for example if you follow gary v you might know that jerry v dream is to buy the jets one day and he tells people this very openly and it's a way it's a point of attach something people can remember about you something they can know about you something they can relate to so you gotta know what you do what you deliver what you've done what you dream about and lastly door out about what are what are you really into what do you collect because that's the stuff people are gonna send you and it's amazing when you wake up your inbox is full of almost like people all around the world hunting down the things that you will find awesome because they understand you and they know you well and every day you're gonna be receiving little gifts little nuggets from people not just people saying hey i love your content but hey man you you have you seen this you're gonna love this that's what happens with me with this podcast people know i nerd out about i do out about in niche internet businesses businesses that are you know off the radar you know people who live life a certain way highly intentional ways they live life and so that's what they send me every way i wait every day i wake up it's like christmas day i got gifts to un unpack about that stuff if you do the five days you know two things will happen one the audience feels more connection with you so the key is connection they don't you don't just want them to know your name in your face you want them to actually know your story know what you're all about know what you're into know your dreams all that stuff and the second is that you get luck here you know when when people know you really well they're gonna send you the right types of deals the right types of recommendations the right types of product lesson number four part of me is thinking right now as i'm recording this video man this is getting kinda long should i keep this shorter but you're still here there's a rule in content which is that there's no such thing as too long only too boring if you want proof go look at the number one podcast in the world joe rogan his average episodes are three hours long and he said when he started that all of his friends told him mike dude that's ridiculous you need to have like a twenty two minute podcast a forty four minute podcast the average length of the the daily americans commute and he just said no i wanna have the types of conversation i i like having long conversations with people i like hanging out with people for a while that's when i feel like i really get to know them and it works because there is no such thing as too long there's only too boring and if you ever feel like something too long you just have to reframe mind maybe it's too boring and try to make it more interesting instead alright number five don't worry about your writing style or your production quality upfront what you wanna do when you start with content is avoid the trap of thinking you need a fancy camera and a fancy set and it needs to be written well no no you need a plus content with c minus delivery that is a great starting point because what people try to do instead is they try to have a plus delivery with seed minus content and that's a death trap you gonna waste hours on your packaging on your post production instead of just trying to find the most interesting stuff you can and have interesting things to say if you want evidence go look at some of the most famous podcast you see today go look at chris williamson old you know videos they're all there online you can go see them and go look at mister beast channel go scroll you're just just so go on youtube and click oldest you'll see him in his bedroom and a white t shirt with no value literally counting to a hundred thousand you're doing something interesting he doesn't look that interesting go look at joe rogan original episode that's like it's it's crazy is like after effects snowflakes falling on his head it's like cheesy as all hell he's using an old ugly webcam and you know he became the king of podcast and the reason that works is because you focused on content first packaging later number six alright we're getting to the end here create a binge bank at the beginning when you try to create content your numbers are gonna be small which will lead you to have doubts which lead you to thinking it to yourself man not even be doing this is kind of embarrassing what's the point of even been doing this well here's the trick at the beginning instead of focusing on the fact that eight people viewed your content tell yourself you're building an asset you're building a binge bank a bank is sort like your personal netflix like binge worthy show it's like an hour of content that if somebody consumed they would love you and you just need to have an amazing hour whether that's you know six or seven blog posts whether that's you know six or seven videos or podcast episodes you just wanna create that seven eight that first season of content that sure nobody's watching today but if they ever did binge it and they went an hour straight of your content they would walk away being like wow who is this guy who is this girl i love them this this person's is amazing why are more people talking about this that is your goal at the beginning you don't focus on the number you focus on creating that power hour of content lesson number seven people do not want information they want a feeling i was wrong about this for a long time i thought that i needed to have the most interesting intelligent information in the world and i really focused on content as this sort of transfer of information but the truth is that if you ask people even people who are fan of you hey you know people will come up with you all the time i'm i'm out with my family they'll say oh man hey i love the channel love the show love the podcast it's so amazing and i'll say awesome what what's something that you've taken away from it right what's your favorite episode what what's something you learned recently from it people really struggle to do that and it's not a knock on them it's just the way that people consume content which is that a lot of content is gonna go in one ear and out the other but something happens in between it coming in and it coming out which is that a person has a feeling and so the advice i got on this which turned out to be very true was to think of your channel your blog your website your book whatever it is as a little shop in the world's most crowded flea market and you're not selling stuff you're selling a feeling so for example david blaine sells the feeling of awe when you see him do something that just blows your mind it's awe inspiring he just it doesn't matter whether he's swallowing a frog or he's you know suspended in that ice cube first eighteen hours or he's levi on the street he is trying to sell the feeling of awe he finds a million different ways to give you that feeling james cleared the author of atomic habit sells the feeling of self control a feeling that you could take control of your life and all of his advice no matter what the blog is about we'll give you that underlying feeling of control dana white has said this he goes at his press conferences said we sell holy shit moments live on paper view you know holy shit that's the feeling that they sell every fight is just designed to create a holy shit moment tony robbins sells is a feeling of motivation and crossfit sells you like a a satisfying sweat at the end of every workout is crossfit actually the best workout no but they're amazing at delivering a satisfying sweat and that gets people addicted and if you give people a feeling once twice you might get a follow but if you can give people that feeling every day you'll get a lifelong fan and so find out the feeling you wanna sell and then figure out how to deliver that consistently more reliably than they can get anywhere else and they'll keep coming back to your shop lesson number eight be so good they can't ignore you so i've become friends with mister beast over the last few years and i love his attitude towards winning when people ask him for advice on how to be a successful youtuber which she gets all the time he just tells him one very simple thing make a hundred videos and every video pick one thing to do better the rule of a hundred hundred videos every time choose one thing to get better it could be the the thumbnail the hook the storytelling the the color editing it doesn't matter what it is pick one thing every time and do it and come back and talk to me over after you've done a a hundred times this is amazing advice because on two levels because number one it just choose people away because most people are not serious and so you gave them you gave serious people a serious task just keep them busy they're that they won't come back because they won't do and the people who do do it by the video they never need to come back they don't need his advice they're too busy with their success and so this rule of a hundred is is the real algorithm that you should follow forget the the news feed the algorithm is a hundred pieces of content each time pick one and do it well if you do that you will become so good that they can ignore you thanks podcast guest is brought to you by my friends at mercury they make the world's best banking product i think you know already i used mercury for all of my businesses i think i like maybe seven or eight businesses we use mercury as our business banking across all of them and now they actually just launched a personal banking account so i have my personal account there i moved off of wells fargo in chase i'm just all in on mercury why i like products that are easy to use i like products that get me and the problems that i have so like very easy to make a joint account with my wife very easy to spin up virtual cards one click and i get savings yield it just has all the stuff that i need in one place so if you're looking for the best banking product on the market it's definitely mercury i will fist fight anybody who disagrees me on that go to mercury dot com slash personal and learn more mercury is a fintech not an fdic insured bank banking services provided through choice financial group and call them n a members fdic and so that's my unconventional advice for anybody who wants to be a creator let's review so the first thing you will do is you will stop worrying about the numbers you will think about who you want to follow you more than how many people follow you and you'll try to make content working backwards imagine they were sitting in that chair in front of you could you with a straight face tell them this would they get excited or would they be like you know this is kinda whack so focus on who not how many number two unleash your inner nerd it is what differentiates you and it creates a world where somehow there's a billion people creating in content and you will have no competition because nobody can match your taste palette the things you nerd out about and the way you nerd out about them more than anybody else number three you wanna remember the five d's so when you create content write these what have i done what do i deliver what do do what do dream about do i door out about and create that creates your content list you wanna create storylines lines underneath each one of those if you just sit for ten minutes and you just brainstorm ideas each one of those d's you'll have like a year of content a pipeline that you could then attack number four there's no such is too long there's only two boring content should be as long as it is interesting that's the rule number five don't worry about packaging if you want a plus content with c minus packaging not c minus content with a plus packaging go look at all your favorite creators go sort by old go read their old stuff it's terrible the packaging is always terrible but the interesting this was always there they always had find heat first before they find polish number six the trick at the beginning when your numbers are low is to focus on not the numbers but creating a binge bank create your one hour of material like a netflix show if somebody binge you they would walk away saying love this person this this person's is amazing i can't believe they don't have a big follow i'm so lucky to be here first number seven make sure you remember that you at the end of the day you deliver a feeling to people not information find out what that feeling is david blaine feeling is all james clears is a self control the sees holy shit moments you know crossfit is a satisfying sweat figure out the feeling you wanna deliver and then deliver that more consistently than anyone else that is your winning strategy and lastly the rule of a hundred from mister beast if you're gonna make content focus on making a hundred of them before you judge yourself at each time just trying make one thing better and if you do the real work you would you will become so good they can ignore you if you look at what people hate about content creators now it's definitely like a processed foods type of thing it's like a there's something artificial about the whole thing people people you know it lost some of the charm of the early days when people were just vlogging their life or people would sort of stumble into an audience they didn't start for that reason they were just sharing their work online or expressing themselves or putting their art out there and like they would get a following and now people know there's big rewards for doing it and so an attracted kind of the wrong type of person or the wrong mentality and i think in a world of ai where and you know literally the computers gonna be making content that's hyper addictive in the hyper entertaining what's gonna be left is gonna be when you bump into a person that feels real and we all have very good bullshit detectors we can actually sense when somebody's real and it stands out and it's very different and so i just think that's gonna be the place where you know the water's is not gonna drown you if you actually operate that way that'll be what sustain in the future and i think was what people crave more than ever now you see this like sam sole he's body building body builder guy you just kinda get to go on a workout with him he talks while he's doing it it's pretty live shape he doesn't feel like he's performing for you feels like he's letting you in and it's surprising to people why that was so successful but it to me it's not very surprising because i think if you noticed a lot of what i said boils back down to like just be yourself but the problem is if you tell somebody just be yourself or be authentic these are hollow words and so what i wanted to give people was the actionable playbook of how you actually be yourself at the end of the day you do all that stuff i guarantee you will have as big of an audience as you desire and maybe you'll find that big famous wasn't all this backed up to me but that's another message for another day for now take this use this well go forth and prosper i feel like i could rule where to i know i could be what i want to from at all in it like a days off on a goal travel never looking back alright let's take a quick i wanna tell you about marketing school it is a podcast that's is part of the hubspot podcast network and it is run by neil patel and eric sue and these guys are both marketers who are running businesses and so if you want real world tactics from who are actually out there in the field doing it this is the podcast for you check out wherever you get your podcast